Woman at Point Zero
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Woman at Point Zero was a book written in 1975 by Nawal El Saadawi. It is set in contemporary Egypt.
A paperback edition was issued in London by Zed Books in 1984 with ISBN 0862321107.
Plot
In the book, a psychiatrist is asked to examine the mental health of a female inmate, who was prosecuted for killing her former pimp; she has been granted parole but she has refused it every single time it has been granted to her. Reluctantly, the inmate, who is named Firdaus, tells the psychiatrist her life story.
Firdaus was born into a farming community. Early on, she asked about her biological father; she was punished by her mother by being circumcised. She is then sent to her uncle's house so she can attend school. While there, she falls in love with a female teacher named Miss Iqbal, who does not return her feelings. Her uncle loves her very much, but her aunt hates her, and accordingly, she is married off to a man who repulses her. To punish her for her ungratefulness, she is repeatedly raped. She escapes from her husband and first becomes a prostitute on the streets of Cairo when she realizes she can detach feelings from sex, and make money in the process.
Over time, she is drafted into the harem of a female friend. Another acquaintance of Firdaus tells her that her living is not respectable, so she leaves it all behind and takes a job at a government agency. She falls in love with a co-worker, who does not return her feelings, as he wishes to climb the proverbial social ladder. He marries the daughter of the agency's president instead. Crushed, Firdaus goes back to prostitution, and is threatened by police action by a local pimp. He eventually drafts her as one of his women.
He is cruel to her, and many times, he locks her in the bordello for hours and even days. One day, he started to beat her up; she picked up a knife and stabbed him as a quick instinct. She made her escape and lived on the lam. A high-profile Arabian prince offers her money in exchange for sex. As soon as the transaction is over, she tells him that she killed a man. He doesn't believe her, and she scares him to the point that he is convinced. He has her arrested, and she is sentenced to death.